BOSTON -- The Boston Red Sox narrowly missed three home runs. But Shane Victorino got the job done for the Sox in dramatic fashion.

A 12th trip to the World Series for the Detroit Tigers will have to wait.

Victorino hit a grand slam off Detroit relief pitcher Jose Veras in the seventh inning Saturday night as the Red Sox broke away for a 5-2 Game 6 victory to eliminate the Tigers from the American League Championship Series.

The Red Sox won the ALCS four games to two and advance to the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Red Sox trailed 2-1 when they loaded the bases with one out in the seventh to set up Victorino's heroics. Jonny Gomes doubled with no outs and Xander Bogaerts walked with one out to chase Tigers starter Max Scherzer from the game. Jacoby Ellsbury then hit a ground ball up the middle against Drew Smyly. Shortstop Jose Iglesias had the ball in his glove with a shot at an inning-ending double play, but it bounced right back out of his glove to load the bases.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland went to Jose Veras at that point, and Veras got ahead in the count 0-2 against Victorino. The next pitch to Victorino was a 77-mph curveball, the third curveball of the at-bat, and Victorino launched it over the Green Monster to give the Red Sox a 5-2 lead.

The Tigers could do nothing against the Red Sox bullpen from that point on as their season came to an end two victories away from their second consecutive trip to the World Series.

KEY TO THE GAME

The Tigers ran themselves into a double play and out of a rally after scoring two runs in the sixth inning. With Victor Martinez at first and Prince Fielder at third with no outs, Jhonny Peralta hit a hard ground ball to second base. Martinez did not seem to have enough time to retreat to first, which allowed Dustin Pedroia to slap the tag on him for out No. 1.

Fielder stopped between third and home and ended up getting chased back to third and eventually tagged out by catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia for a 4-2 double play. Peralta, who ended up on second on the play, was replaced by pinch runner Don Kelly, but Alex Avila struck out to end the inning.

TIGERS HIGHLIGHTS-- Scherzer was not especially sharp in the first inning, but he got into a groove and feasted on the bottom of the order in the second. Scherzer needed just 13 pitches to strike out the side in order, all on swing-and-miss third strikes.

-- The Red Sox narrowly missed taking a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning. After Scherzer issued back-to-back walks to start the inning, Scherzer made a nice sliding catch on a popped-up bunt attempt by Victorino. Pedroia then hit the first pitch he saw a mile down the line in left, but it hooked foul by just inches. The umpires upheld the initial call that it was a foul ball after looking at the video replay. Pedroia ended up hitting a ground ball to third base to start an inning-ending 5-3 double play.

-- The Red Sox narrowly missed home runs on two other occasions, on a double in the fifth by Bogaerts that would have been gone had it been hit about 10 feet to the right and a double to lead off the seventh by Gomes that almost cleared the Green Monster.

-- Alex Avila threw out Ellsbury on a steal attempt to end the fifth inning. Ellsbury led the majors with 52 steals in the regular season and entered the game with six steals in the playoffs.

-- The Tigers rallied for the lead in the top of the sixth just after the Red Sox broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth. Torii Hunter walked and Miguel Cabrera singled to lead off the sixth inning, and Red Sox manager John Farrell replaced Clay Buchholz with left-hander Franklin Morales at that point. But Morales walked the struggling Prince Fielder on four pitches to load the bases, then surrendered a two-run single off the Green Monster by Martinez as the Tigers took a 2-1 lead.

-- Scherzer got himself into trouble in the sixth, then got himself out of it. He hit Victorino with a pitch, then walked Pedroia. After Kelly made a running catch on a slicing fly ball by David Ortiz, both runners moved up on a wild pitch. But Scherzer struck out Mike Napoli and got Saltalamacchia to pop up to strand runners at second and third.

TIGERS LOWLIGHTS
-- The Red Sox broke up a scoreless pitchers' duel with a two-out rally in the fifth inning. Bogaerts hit a double off the Green Monster in left field, then scored from second when Ellsbury laced a line-drive single to right.

-- The Tigers did not have a runner reach second base in the first five innings.

-- Austin Jackson reached base for the second time in the game with a one-out single in the seventh. But relief pitcher Brandon Workman caught him leaning the wrong way and picked him off first base.

-- The Tigers had runners at first and second with two outs in the seventh when Cabrera hit a ball that seemed bound for center field. But Red Sox shortstop Stephen Drew made a diving stop, then got up and threw out Cabrera at first to end the inning. If the ball made it through or even deflected off Drew, the Tigers would have added to their 2-1 lead. If Cabrera were healthy, he likely would have beat the throw to first.

OTHER GAME NOTES
-- The strikeout of Gomes in the second inning by Scherzer gave Tigers pitchers the record for strikeouts in a League Championship Series with 50. Scherzer struck out Mike Napoli for the second out of the fourth for the 52nd strikeout by Tigers pitchers in the series. That set a record for most strikeouts by a pitching staff in any playoff series.

-- The final line for Buchholz: 5-plus IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 4SO. He threw 85 pitches, 56 for strikes.